October means the return of scary things, but multifamily's not one of them. (Dress up as a CMBS loan if you really want to frighten the kids.) It's both a good time to both buy and sell multifamily in greater Philadelphia, Gebroe-Hammer Associates managing director Joseph Brecher tells us. Rental properties are in demand marketwide, he says, yet the region isn’t seeing bubble pricing.

The greater Philly area has a robust renter pool, made even stronger by the fact that local college graduates in eastern Pennsylvania are deciding to stay, Joseph says. This trend, along with attractive pricing for multifamily product, is contributing to the growth in investment sales velocity, which is now reaching pre-recession levels.

Joseph, along with colleagues David Oropeza and Eli Rosen, recently brokered four multifamily sales in the region. In the largest sale of the four, Joseph and David repped the seller and identified the buyer of the 344-unit Sherman Hills, a garden-apartment complex in Wilkes-Barre, which sold for $15.7M as part of a Housing Assistance Payment and Housing Urban Development contract. The other sales included the 64-unit Fairfield Apartments at 7900-7922 Fairfield St in Philadelphia; the 42-unit Arborwood Duplexes in the Germantown/Mt. Airy district; and the 36-unit Liberty Walk Apartments at 500 E 24th Street in Chester’s Sunnyside section.